Making Larry King look good

In order to be disappointed, there has to be some level of expectation, like the aroma of popcorn luring you into a hidden platter of Brussel sprouts. Pull this switcheroo enough times and after awhile it all starts to smell like Brussel sprouts, although — unlike Morgan Spurlock’s take on UFOs last night — at least Brussel sprouts have redeeming nutritional value.

De Void is back, for now, still unable to leave the exhausted stage, like James Brown — but how long can the suffering endure?/CREDIT: archivesdemontreal.com

So perhaps it’s only fitting, in the aftermath of CNN’s most recent effort to confront The Great Taboo, that De Void attempt to muster one final bit of enthusiasm for this cored-out husk of a blog. After all, in a world of epidemic disappointments, De Void — like corporate-media UFO coverage — is a place where lowered standards are the norm, where your brain can languish without guilt or regret, precisely because there are no expectations anymore.

And here’s the thing: De Void actually likes Spurlock’s work. Here’s a documentary filmmaker who takes serious chances with his own well being in first-person projects like “Super Size Me” and “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” He’s a bright, affable guy. His “Inside Man” series for CNN is informed and entertaining. But when CNN started promoting his upcoming UFO segment several weeks ago, De Void could already smell the melting wax and burning feathers of Spurlock’s high-flying Icarus act because, well, that’s just the effect UFOs have on mainstream journos when they get too close.

To his credit, Spurlock did attempt one unpredictable thing, i.e., sample the cinematically arid rigors of MUFON field investigator training in Arizona. These guys do thankless work, and they’re worth a nod. But then Spurlock bails and goes all fast food by traveling to Sedona to chat it up with an alien abductee who claims to have been spirited to Zeta Reticuli hundreds of times and spawned seven hybrid children in the process. He spends one whole entire night or at least an hour on a skywatch, hoping UFOs will show up like catfish on bread crumbs, before re-emerging in Georgia to interview eyewitnesses who’ve filed reports with MUFON. The returns are proportionate to the investment: a MUFON imaging analyst ascribes Spurlock’s witness photos to a mylar kite, “insufficient data,” and satellite activity.

So the guy winds up in California’s Bay Area, where he might’ve given his audience a glimpse of UFO data they’ve never seen or heard of on CNN before. He might’ve chosen to do a spot on Richard Haines, retired NASA Ames Research Center scientist and founder of the 15-year-old National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. With 3,400 aviation-related cases in its database, NARCAP’s analyses are multi-disciplinary and international in scope.

Instead, Spurlock sticks to the drive-thru formula and winds up in a dry salt pond with Ames planetary scientist Chris McKay, talking about the potential for life evolving in harsh off-world conditions far, far away. Nobody’s ever heard that one before. Then he heads north for the barren fields of the SETI Institute, whose radiotelescopes have found nary a shred of evidence to support its $30 million theory that ET wants to reach us via radiowaves.

And then, at the end of it all, Spurlock digs deep and tells it like it is: “The one thing that we know is that we don’t know.”

Now that’s my kind of wow! signal, man. And the good thing is? De Void’s not even disappointed, not anymore. When it comes to disappointment, De Void is damn near bulletproof.

16 comments on “Making Larry King look good”

I thought it was fine for what it was. It featured some nuts and bolts investigating, some skywatching and some chatting with SETI scientists. It was OK. It covered a fair amount of ground in less than an hour.

So the MUFON analyst Spurlock consulted on-camera, the guy who dismissed his best video evidence as pedestrian — he’s credible or not credible? There’s plenty of good reasons for me to quit this blog, but make a stronger case than my occasional sourcing of MUFON. I know a couple of these guys down here in Florida; they’re conscientious, they’re clearly not in it for the $$$, and they’re not zealots. Suckers? I dunno, maybe some are. They’re all volunteers. Would I pay $115 for the latest field investigator’s manual and a one-year subscription to the e-zine, plus another $350 to attend a boot camp? Nope — I have a limited attention span. On the other hand, if the “big con game” you’re referring to means MUFON is screwing these folks out of what they paid for, feel free to get specific.

Wow! If you still think of MUFON as a credible organization, maybe it is time to fold the blog. MUFON might have had some serious aspirations and cache back in the day, but it has devolved into a big con game (forget government conspiracy whispers, it’s just your average, garden variety suck money from suckers scheme nowadays).

Billy, you could always split time with the other great taboo- Pseudoscience. many working under the radar in that space with goods rolling out. Some in sunny FL! Others shot down 20+ years ago here in Boston at MIT. See Cold Fusion/LENR. And the tie in might be the results enable systems from “out there”

Billy, Billy, Billy. Glad to see you back. Too bad about Spurlock. However we did have the late Peter Jennings do a good job. Years….and years….ago. Maybe Brain Williams will pick up the mantle! Keep a stiff upper lip. Go out and have a few. Spend some time with that special someone, keep up the fight!

wow! indeed — You’re not boiling those Brussels sprouts, are you, Billy? Heat some butter and olive oil in a good pan, mediumish, and swirl a few smashed garlic cloves around in it until they brown a bit; remove, then add halved sprouts cut side down, cover and let cook 10 minutes or so. Serve with shaved Parmesan. mmm-mm! Hell, serve on a bed of popcorn.

The tv show? Didn’t see it; haven’t watched for years now. Same as it ever was, i take it.

You may not be, but I am disappointed! Not in DeVoid, but in the “same old, same old” from media. It seems I’m not bulletproof yet. Instead, being from Boston, as a sailor might know, when heading into the wind one can take a different tack. Might the way of the wack-job abductee be the way to go for a while? 🙂

caught the last part of spurlock’s show last night. bad journalism! talk about–what’s the opposite of cherry picking–turd picking? i tuned in when the sedona nut jobs were watching satellites go over thinking they’re ufos. i have seen one satellite in my life go over, and when i saw the video of those “ufos”, i thought to myself, “those look like satellites.” then he finishes off with jill tarter of silly SETI. even if SETI were to find something, the CIA would suppress it, as they have to clear their findings through them first. then jill tops it off by saying she doesn’t know if any life exists off earth. i would expect more of an expansive opinion from a scientist, such as “of course it does simply based on the statistics of all the planets that are out there, and it is simply a matter of time until we find it.” i am never going to watch spurlock ever, or read anyting by him again.